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Square spiral staircases appear in Sicily during the 16th century in different contexts and for different purposes. This contribution focuses on two case studies at the “opposite poles” of a casuistry that shares the common characteristics of suspended ramps revolving within a square masonry box around a central void. By analysing these cases we find a probable link with models from Spain. At the same time, they demonstrate a common descent from a constructive culture rooted in the Spanish and Mediterranean stereotomic experience of the early modern age.

The chapter deals with the theme of the role of clients in architectural debate in Italy during 15th and 16th centuries, trough a slection of case studies.

The historiographical literature dedicated to the architecture of the Friar Preachers in Sicily, if one excludes the few studies on the complexes in Palermo, which are anyhow focussed on the churches only, is still substantially limited to the sporadic studies by local scholars or members of the Order on the history of the Dominicans in Sicily. The aim of our research, therefore, was to outline a general framework that could serve as a stepping stone for further research. It was first of all necessary to carry out a census of all the Dominican architectural complexes in Sicily, in order to determine the overall dimensions of the phenomenon and its chronological and territorial articulation, and then match it with the unfolding of historical events within the Order and the Kingdom’s socio-political context. Therefore, four main periods were identified with clear distinctive features: 1) from 1220 to 1250; 2) the 150-year period between the second half of the thirteenth century and the whole of the fourteenth century; 3) between the first decade of the fifteenth century and the 1580’s; and 4) between the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth centuries. Starting with this cognitive basis, the following analytical phase focussed on identifying the original architectural layout of the monastery complexes and any shared settlement strategies - in relation to the different periods of their construction and the different social forces involved (municipality or feudal nobility). In drawing an overall balance, it can be concluded that the spread of the Friar Preachers in Sicily, rather slow in the long initial phase spanning the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was a macroscopic phenomenon substantially linked to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Moreover, the Order’s settlement took place following the logic of a widespread presence of small communities throughout the Kingdom, rather than through the construction of large complexes in major cities. The only exception to this logic was the Dominican community in Palermo.

Dopo l’Unità d’Italia la storiografia si è concentrata nell’intero territorio nazionale sulla “ricerca” del Rinascimento, prescelto nel momento di costruzione di una identità nazionale come manifestazione artistica italiana per antonomasia. Tutto ciò ha originato una protratta “sfortuna critica” nei confronti di tutte quelle manifestazioni artistiche convenzionalmente riunite sotto l’etichetta di Tardogotico. In definitiva, se qualche indulgenza è stata concessa alla solida tradizione dei costruttori lombardi o agli ineludibili “esotismi” di una realtà rivolta a Oriente come quella veneziana, per il meridione peninsulare e le isole si è affermata l’idea di un ritardo culturale. Superati pregiudizi e preconcetti, la realtà che emerge anche per il contesto italiano è ben diversa e la presenza del Tardogotico appare meno marginale e circoscritta di quanto non risultasse sulla base di tendenziose selezioni. Ma si può parlare di una architettura tardogotica italiana? Di certo non esiste un fenomeno unitario e qui più che altrove la varietà delle linee di ricerca perseguite (strutturali, tecnologiche, formali, decorative) dà luogo a una grande varietà di esiti, confrontabili principalmente all’interno di contesti regionali ma con connotazioni che variano spesso da città a città. Nel complesso l’incidenza del Tardogotico nelle sue molteplici declinazioni appare territorialmente preponderante nel corso del XV secolo, restando la cultura rinascimentale limitata a pochi centri di sperimentazione. Nei primi decenni del Cinquecento il rapporto di forze in parte muta e, sotto la spinta di mode antiquarie, l’attenzione verso le forme del linguaggio all’antica inizia a farsi strada anche nelle “roccaforti” del gotico. Non si tratta tuttavia quasi mai di una netta scelta di campo o di uno scontro, ma piuttosto di un dialogo tra culture, che si risolve non di rado in fantasiose ibridazioni. Questo contributo analizza alcune declinazioni di questo dialogo attraverso una selezionata casistica di architetture prodotte in ambiti che ruotano intorno alla penisola italiana (Sardegna, Sicilia, Malta e Dalmazia) e nelle sue regioni meridionali, permeabili anche ad altre sollecitazioni provenienti da occidente e da oriente. Originating in historiographical trends of post-Unification Italy, the “quest” of the Renaissance and its credentials as the only manifestation of a progressive and specifically Italian culture, created in the Italian setting a prolonged period of “critical misfortune” in regard to all those artistic manifestations that were conventionally gathered together under the Late Gothic label. Indeed, if some leniency was granted to the solid tradition of the Lombard constructors or to the inescapable “exoticism” of a reality which looked East like Venice, as far as the Southern Italian mainland and islands were concerned, the idea of a cultural lag was asserted. After overcoming prejudice and preconceptions, the reality that emerges for also the Italian setting is well different, and the presence of the Late Gothic style appears less marginal and localized than we would expect on the basis of tendentious choices. But can we talk about an Italian Late Gothic architectural style? Certainly a unitary phenomenon does not exist and here more than anywhere else the variety of lines of research that have been pursued (structural, technological, formal, decorative) give rise to a great diversity of results, that are mainly comparable within regional contexts but whose connotations vary from city to city. On the whole, the incidence of Late Gothic in its multiple declensions appears territorially predominant over the course of the fifteenth century, with Renaissance culture limited to a few centres of experimentation. However, in the first few decades of the sixteenth century, the ratio of power changes partly and, under the thrust of antiquity , interest in the old-fashioned forms of language begins to rise from the ranks, even in the Gothic “strongholds”. Nevertheless it is hardly ever a question of a clear-cut choice of battleground or battle, but rather of a dialogue between cultures, which often results in imaginative hybridizations. Through a selection of cases of architecture in settings around the Italian peninsula (Sardinia, Sicily, Malta and Dalmatia) and in its Southern regions, but which are at the same time permeated by other solicitations from the west and the east, this paper looks at forms and types of dialogue between cultures that characterise the start of the “long” sixteenth century.

In the context of the capital cities of the Aragonese Kindom, it would be necessary to examineand compare the cerimonial practices, behavioral codes, and uses made of the royal residences. At the same time it seems increasingly evident that, during the 15th century, the mobility of the royal court - as well as that of the aristocrats, merchants, and master builders - slowly shaped a modern, homogeneous common language which is currently defined as "Mediterranean Gothic". This paper analyzes the contribution of Sicily through the study of a number of significant buildings : the royal palace of Palermo and the Steri of Chiaromonte , the castle Maniace of Syracuse .